Quarantine
Twelve weeks locked up in my place in Greenwich. I’m going crazy. My wife calls it a first world problem and I guess she’s right. I’m coming back to Denver in a couple of weeks and can hardly wait. When I booked the flight the travel agent said it was the first business class flight of any kind she’d booked since the middle of March.
It’s been really busy at JLL. We’ve all been spending our days trying to save some of our companies. It’s ironic that having been on the naughty step for years, Pioneer is no longer their biggest issue.
In my spare time I’ve done things I’ve never done before, as I’m sure many of you have. I’ve spoken to my 81-year old mother in the UK every day and actually enjoyed it. I’ve made Yorkshire Puddings (Google search, you’ll like them). My hair has receded. Not literally, thankfully, but I have shaved off my beard and my wife has cut my hair (2 hours of torture). I admit to having visited Home Depot nearly every day during the lockdown. The day I finally got the last packet of toilet rolls felt like I’d won the lottery.
I went into New York a couple of times and it was like a ghost town. All you could hear was the constant din of ambulance sirens. It was so sad to see queues around the block at soup kitchens.
For two years you’ve been reading my messages and may have noticed I don’t talk about numbers a lot; I prefer to talk about people, ideas, events and new projects. Well this month I’mgoing to throw a few numbers at you. $21.6M: May sales, the biggest month in company’s history. 25%: the increase in sales over last May. $500K: the average Saturday sales, which a few months ago would have been a good week day, and June could be bigger. Well done to all.
These are all remarkable numbers from where we were two years ago and against the backdrop of a global pandemic. What I’m more delighted about is the work that lies behind them. Numbers are just an output, like statistics in baseball or a score in football. What’s more important is how the game was played.
As a management team we had a decision to make back in March. A number of paths that faced us would inevitably have led to bankruptcy. At the same time we could not put the lives of you or your customers at risk.
We acted earlier than most. Secured the supplies we needed, signed the cleaning contracts and instituted the policies that allowed us to make the decision to tread through.
On reflection, I think we benefitted from having been in turnaround mode for a couple of years. COVID was just another hurdle for everyone to overcome. Everyone already had their targets and a bonus scheme to reward success. We knew where our inventory was and can supply it on trucks running more efficiently than 2in the past. The environment we work in is safer as a result of the recently introduced changes. Customers are giving me great feedback and we are improving vendor relationships regularly.
One final note that I believe is both poignant and timely: The recent violence and what led to it are deeply troubling. I’m not a politician and prefer to stand with the vast majority of right minded people who know right from wrong when they see it. Our best response is to ensure the culture within Pioneer is fair, transparent, decent and without bias. I would enlist all of your help in striving to work towards that goal.
Good luck everyone, stay safe and keep smiling (even if it is behind a mask).
Mark Adamson
Chief Executive Officer